Geniza Lab

Garshuni poem rhymed on -nī (e.g., al-awṭānī, insānī, ikhwānī), each section punctuated by a refrain (qufl). Cf. Kiraz, "Learning Syriac and Garshuni in Early Modern Egypt."

Syriac alphabet exercises and Psalms 8:1a. Information from Kiraz, "Learning Syriac and Garshuni in Early Modern Egypt."

Recto: portion of the beginning of a Syriac hymn ‘My bones shall cry out’. This hymn is also found in the Book of Beth Gazo. It belongs to the Qolo ‘The father has written a letter,’ melody no. 2. While the rest of the Syriac fragments at the classmark Or.1081 2.75 are clearly Syriac-Orthodox based on content, this hymn is particularly anti-Nestorian, as it starts, ‘my bones shall cry out from the tomb, “The Virgin gave birth to God”.’ The hymn then goes on to state that ‘if I have any doubt’ about this, may I be thrown into Gehenna with Nestorius’. Verso: alphabetical writing exercise in Syriac, repeating ‘in the name of the Father, the Son and the Living Holy Spirit’. Dating: ca. 16th or 17th century. (Information from CUDL and Kiraz, "Learning Syriac and Garshuni in Early Modern Egypt.")

Two Syriac hymns. These are writing exercises of a pupil. Written on a bifolium. 3b: "The Virgin gave birth to a wonder.” 3f: "The pure and exalted one."

"The text of the Makherzonutho or Proclamation that a deacon chants prior to the reading of the Gospel. . . [from] the Book of Anaphora, the priest's manual rather than the Tekso deacon manual." George Kiraz, "A Young Syriac Pupil in the Cairo Genizah: Or.1081 2.75.30," (Fragment of the Month, August 2018). Described as "Book of Anaphora, pre-Anaphora preparatory rite and Liturgy of the Word (with a Gospel reading from Mt, Ch. 1)" in Kiraz, "Learning Syriac and Garshuni in Early Modern Egypt."

Psalm 1:1–2a in Syriac. Information from Kiraz, "Learning Syriac and Garshuni in Early Modern Egypt."

Garshuni text. Only 2.5 lines are preserved. It is difficult to make out more than "...idhā... al-wuḥūsh taftaris..." Cf. Kiraz, "Learning Syriac and Garshuni in Early Modern Egypt."

Syriac writing exercises. On a bifolium. Written by a pupil. Mainly consists of alphabet practice, along with religious or liturgical phrases, an incomplete Lord's Prayer in the Peshitta version, a phrase in Garshuni (al-qiddīsīn al-mumajjadīn), etc.

Liturgical.

Piyyut (qina) by Elʿazar ha-Qalir. Information from FGP.

Piyyut.

Poems in Judaeo-Arabic (balligh salāmī yā dā'im...), along with copious jottings in Hebrew.

Autobiographical maqāma by Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi, ed. Schirmann. Discussed by Amir Ashur here: https://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/departments/taylor-schechter-genizah-research-unit/fragment-month/fragment-month-8#_ftn2.

The first folio (including the title page) of Kitāb al-Fityān, a lost book by al-Jāḥiẓ. The little that is preserved here enumerates the qualities and manners of a proper fatā, a proper sāqī, and a proper nadīm. Note that the text is not entirely new. A portion appears also in Kitāb al-Bukhalā' (see Kevin Blankinship "Giggers, Greeners, Peyserts, and Palliards: Rendering Slang in al-Bukhalāʾ of al-Jāḥiẓ, p. 29"). This fragment has been edited by Regourd in her catalogue of the Arabic-script manuscripts in DK.

Spell book in Judaeo-Arabic.

Epistolary introduction to a medical treatise in Judaeo-Arabic. "Your letter arrived, O brother, inquiring after the books of Galen... and the Alexandrians..."

Literary work entitled Ṣifat al-Mulūk. In Arabic script. It gives a census of the tribes of the jinn (72 tribes in all, including Muslims, Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians, Samaritans, Sudanese and Persian, etc.) and descriptions of the kings of the jinn.

Liturgical.

Literary, probably. Very faded. See folio 26 for the probable dating.

Book of Seliḥot. See folio 26 for the probable dating.